Direct electrochemistry and reagentless biosensing of glucose oxidase immobilized on chitosan wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes

Ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor for detection of circulating tumor cells based on a highly efficient enzymatic cascade reaction

There has been great interest in the enzymatic cascade amplification strategy for the electrochemical detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). In this work, we designed a highly efficient enzymatic cascade reaction based on a multiwalled carbon nanotubes-chitosan (MWCNTs-CS) composite for detection of CTCs. A high electrochemical effective surface area was obtained for a MWCNTs-CS-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for loading glucose oxidase (GOD), as well as a high loading rate and high electrical activity of the enzyme. As a 'power source', the MWCNTs-CS composites provided a strong driving power for horseradish peroxidase (HRP) on the surface of polystyrene (PS) microspheres, which acted as probes for capturing CTCs and allowed the reaction to proceed with further facilitation of electron transfer. Aptamer, CTCs, and PS microspheres with HRP and anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (anti-EpCAM) antibody were assembled on the MWCNTs-CS/GCE to allow for the modulation of enzyme distance at the micrometer level, and thus ultra-long-range signal transmission was made possible. An ultrasensitive response to CTCs was obtained via this proposed sensing strategy, with a linear range from 10 cell mL^-1 to 6 × 10⁶ cell mL^-1 and a detection limit of 3 cell mL^-1. Moreover, this electrochemical sensor possessed the capability to detect CTCs in serum samples with satisfactory accuracy, which indicated great potential for early diagnosis and clinical analysis of cancer.

Functionalization of Nanomaterials for Skin Cancer Theranostics

Skin cancer has drawn attention for the increasing incident rates and high morbidity worldwide. Timely diagnosis and efficient treatment are of paramount importance for prompt and effective therapy. Thus, the development of novel skin cancer diagnosis and treatment strategies is of great significance for both fundamental research and clinical practice. Recently, the emerging field of nanotechnology has profoundly impact on early diagnosis and better treatment planning of skin cancer. In this review, we will discuss the current encouraging advances in functional nanomaterials for skin cancer theranostics. Challenges in the field and safety concerns of nanomaterials will also be discussed.

Immobilized Enzymes on Graphene as Nanobiocatalyst

Using enzymes as bioelectrocatalysts is an important step toward the next level of biotechnology for energy production. In such biocatalysts, a sacrificial cofactor as an electron and proton source is needed. This is a great obstacle for upscaling, due to cofactor instability and product separation issues, which increase the costs. Here, we report a cofactor-free electroreduction of CO2 to a high energy density chemical (methanol) catalyzed by enzyme-graphene hybrids. The biocatalyst consists of dehydrogenases covalently bound on a well-defined carboxyl graphene derivative, serving the role of a conductive nanoplatform. This nanobiocatalyst achieves reduction of CO2 to methanol at high current densities, which remain unchanged for at least 20 h of operation, without production of other soluble byproducts. It is thus shown that critical improvements on the stability and rate of methanol production at a high Faradaic efficiency of 12% are possible, due to the effective electrochemical process from the electrode to the enzymes via the graphene platform.

Recent advances in designing nanomaterial based biointerfaces for electrochemical biosensing cardiovascular biomarkers

Early diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is critically important for successful treatment and recovery of patients. At present, detection of CVD at early stages of its progression becomes a major issue for world health. The nanoscale electrochemical biosensors exhibit diverse outstanding properties, rendering them extremely suitable for the determination of CVD biomarkers at very low concentrations in biological fluids. The unique advantages offered by electrochemical biosensors in terms of sensitivity and stability imparted by nanostructuring the electrode surface together with high affinity and selectivity of bioreceptors have led to the development of new electrochemical biosensing strategies that have introduced as interesting alternatives to conventional methodologies for clinical diagnostics of CVD. This review provides an updated overview of selected examples during the period 2005-2018 involving electrochemical biosensing approaches and signal amplification strategies based on nanomaterials, which have been applied for determination of CVD biomarkers. The studied CVD biomarkers include AXL receptor tyrosine kinase, apolipoproteins, cholesterol, C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, fibrinogen (Fib), glucose, insulin, interleukins, lipoproteins, myoglobin, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and troponins (Tns) on electrochemical transduction format. Identification of new specific CVD biomarkers, multiplex bioassay for the simultaneous determination of biomarkers, emergence of microfluidic biosensors, real-time analysis of biomarkers and point of care validation with high sensitivity and selectivity are the major challenges for future research.

A highly sensitive glucose sensor based on a gold nanoparticles/polyaniline/multi-walled carbon nanotubes composite modified glassy carbon electrode

The PTFE/GOx/AuNPs/PANI/MWCNTs/GCE glucose sensor possesses wide linear range, low detection limit, high sensitivity, which can measure the glucose in human serum and holds application potential.

Probing the electrochemical properties of biopolymer modified EMD nanoflakes through electrodeposition for high performance alkaline batteries

In the present work, a novel biopolymer approach has been made to electrodeposit manganese dioxide from manganese sulphate in a sulphuric acid bath containing chitosan in the absence and presence of glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent. Galvanostatically synthesised electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) nanoflakes were used as electrode materials and their electrochemical properties with the influence of biopolymer chitosan were systematically characterized. The structural determination, surface morphology and porosity of nanostructured EMD were evaluated using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy and nitrogen adsorption-desorption techniques. The results obtained were compared with that of blank EMD (polymer free). The results indicated that the EMD having chitosan cross-linked with glutaraldehyde possesses a reduced particle size and more porous structure than the blank and EMDs synthesized in the presence of chitosan but without glutaraldehyde. The results revealed that chitosan was unable to play any significant role on its own but chitosan in the presence of glutaraldehyde forms a cross-linking structure, which in turn influences the nucleation and growth of the EMDs during electrodeposition. EMDs obtained in the presence of chitosan (1 g dm(-3)) and glutaraldehyde (1% glutaraldehyde) exhibited a reversible and better discharge capacity upon cycling than the blank which showed its typical capacity fading behaviour with cycling. In addition, EMD synthesized in the presence of 1 g dm(-3) chitosan and 2% glutaraldehyde exhibited a superior electrochemical performance than the blank and lower amounts (1%; 1.5%) of glutaraldehyde, showing a stable discharge capacity of 60 mA h g(-1) recorded up to 40 cycles in alkaline KOH electrolyte for a Zn-MnO2 system. Our results demonstrate the potential of using polymer modified EMDs as a new generation of alkaline battery materials. The XPS data show that a surface functional moiety arising from the cross-linked chitosan enhances the electrochemical properties of the Zn-MnO2 system.

Electroactive Film of Myoglobin Incorporated in a 3D-porous Calcium Alginate Film with Polyvinyl Alcohol, Glycerin and Gelatin

In this work, an electroactive porous Mb-CA's composite film was fabricated by incorporating myoglobin (Mb) in a three-dimension (3D) porous calcium alginate (CA) film with polyvinyl alcohol, glycerol, and gelatin. The porous Mb-CA's film modified electrodes exhibited a pair of well-defined, quasi-reversible cyclic voltammetric (CV) peaks at about -0.37 V vs. SCE in pH 7.0 buffers, characteristic of Mb heme Fe((III))/Fe((II)) redox couples. The electrochemical parameters, such as formal potentials (E(o')) and apparent heterogeneous electron-transfer rate constants (ks), were estimated by square-wave voltammetry with nonlinear regression analysis. The porous CA's composite film could form hydrogel in aqueous solution. The positions of the Soret absorbance band suggest that Mb in the CA's composite film kept its native states in the medium pH range. Hydrogen peroxide, oxygen, and nitrite were electrochemically catalyzed by the Mb-CA's composite film with significant lowering of the reduction overpotential.

Glucose biosensor based on glucose oxidase immobilized at gold nanoparticles decorated graphene-carbon nanotubes

Biopolymer pectin stabilized gold nanoparticles were prepared at graphene and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (GR-MWNTs/AuNPs) and employed for the determination of glucose. The formation of GR-MWNTs/AuNPs was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-vis and FTIR spectroscopy methods. Glucose oxidase (GOx) was successfully immobilized on GR-MWNTs/AuNPs film and direct electron transfer of GOx was investigated. GOx exhibits highly enhanced redox peaks with formal potential of -0.40 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The amount of electroactive GOx and electron transfer rate constant were found to be 10.5 × 10(-10) mol cm(-2) and 3.36 s(-1), respectively, which were significantly larger than the previous reports. The fabricated amperometric glucose biosensor sensitively detects glucose and showed two linear ranges: (1) 10 μM - 2 mM with LOD of 4.1 μM, (2) 2 mM - 5.2 mM with LOD of 0.95 mM. The comparison of the biosensor performance with reported sensors reveals the significant improvement in overall sensor performance. Moreover, the biosensor exhibited appreciable stability, repeatability, reproducibility and practicality. The other advantages of the fabricated biosensor are simple and green fabrication approach, roughed and stable electrode surface, fast in sensing and highly reproducible.

Rationally designed molecularly imprinted polymers for selective extraction of methocarbamol from human plasma

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with high selectivity toward methocarbamol have been computationally designed and synthesized based on the general non-covalent molecular imprinting approach. A virtual library consisting of 18 functional monomers was built and possible interactions between the template and functional monomers were investigated using a semiempirical approach. The monomers with the highest binding scores were then considered for additional calculations using a more accurate quantum mechanical (QM) calculation exploiting the density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level. The cosmo polarizable continuum model (CPCM) was also used to simulate the polymerization solvent. On the basis of computational results, acrylic acid (AA) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) were found to be the best choices of functional monomer and polymerization solvent, respectively. MIPs were then synthesized by the precipitation polymerization method and used as selective adsorbents to develop a molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) procedure before quantitative analysis. After MISPE the drug could be determined either by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), on a glassy carbon electrode modified with multiwalled-carbon nanotubes (GC/MWNT), or high performance chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection. A comparative study between MISPE-DPV and MISPE-HPLC-UV was performed. The MISPE-DPV was more sensitive but both techniques showed similar accuracy and precision.

Thrombus inducing property of atomically thin graphene oxide sheets

Graphene oxide (GO), the new two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial, is extensively investigated for potential biomedical applications. Thus, it is pertinent to critically evaluate its untoward effects on physiology of tissue systems including blood platelets, the cells responsible for maintenance of hemostasis and thrombus formation. Here we report for the first time that atomically thin GO sheets elicited strong aggregatory response in platelets through activation of Src kinases and release of calcium from intracellular stores. Compounding this, intravenous administration of GO was found to induce extensive pulmonary thromboembolism in mice. Prothrombotic character of GO was dependent on surface charge distribution as reduced GO (RGO) was significantly less effective in aggregating platelets. Our findings raise a concern on putative biomedical applications of GO in the form of diagnostic and therapeutic tools where its prothrombotic property should be carefully investigated.

Carbon nanotube-chitosan modified disposable pencil graphite electrode for vitamin B12 analysis

A single walled carbon nanotube-chitosan (SWCNT-chitosan) modified disposable pencil graphite electrode (PGE) was used in this study for the electrochemical detection of Vitamin B(12). Electrochemical behaviors of SWCNT-chitosan PGE and chitosan modified PGE were compared by using cyclic voltammetry (CV), square-wave voltammetry (SWV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. SWCNT-chitosan modified electrode was also used for the quantification of Vitamin B(12) in pharmaceutical products. The results show that this electrode system is suitable for sensitive Vitamin B(12) analysis giving good recovery results. The surface morphologies of the SWCNT-chitosan PGE, chitosan modified PGE and unmodified PGE were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).